Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme:  Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book.

If any of these words or phrases show up in the blurb of a book, there's a 98% chance I'm NOT going to read that particular book. 

1. Revenge plots (they're usually so dark and depressing!)

2. Drugs and drug trafficking

3. BDSM (so not my cup of tea)

4. Politics (there's already too much of it on the news)

5. Mafia/Mob

6. Multi-generational sagas

7. Billionaire boyfriends (really? they have to be billionaires now?)

8. Unpunctuated dialogue (quote marks! they're there for a reason..use them.)

9. Novels that are labeled Fables

10. Graphic gore or violence

Happy Reading...or NOT in this case! 😉

Quick Book Recommendations...

 

Begin Again 
by Emma Lord

See You Yesterday
by Rachel Lynn Solomon
(warning: explicit language)

Things these two entertaining YA novels have in common:

Amusing mishaps

College setting

Humorous banter

Relatable characters

Unexpected friendships

Compelling plots

Romance

Happy endings

I haven't been reading too many YA novels lately because so many of them have been sadly disappointing...but I thought both of these books were a lot of fun. The stories were well written, the plots clever, and the endings of both made me smile. Check them out!

Happy Reading!

 

Ever feel this way?

 

This is totally me today.

Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme? Things that instantly make me want to read a book. 

I've done posts similar to this one before with Favorite Settings and Irresistible Premises & Plots. So I decided to tweak this week's TTT a tiny bit and go with...

Words and phrases in a blurb that always make me want to read the book:

Lost Treasure

Archaeological Quests

Rare Books (or manuscripts)

Search-and-Rescue Dogs

"Snowed-in"

Remote Island

Wilderness Survival

Homesteading

Crumbling Ancestral Estate

Artists/Stolen Art

Happy Reading!

Quick book recommendations....

 

In the Clearing by Robert Dugoni

This is the third Tracy Crosswhite mystery, and the second one that I've read, but it won't be my last. I'm really liking Tracy. In this one, she investigates a cold case from 40 years ago that turns out to be murder. I loved how all the separate threads wove together as Tracy patiently figures out the truth. It's a compelling mystery. 

How to Find Your Way Home by Katy Regan

There's so much I loved about this book I don't even know where to begin! Emily's search for her homeless brother, Stephen, who was taken away when she was 12;  his vow, as her big brother, to love and protect her forever; and their subsequent struggle to reconnect after twenty years was all so poignant. Regan's writing is excellent, especially the way she interweaves the past and the present. And, of course, I loved all the birds and birding in this one. It's an unexpected and lovely novel.

Happy Reading!

Haiku Reviews...

 

My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh

She's a struggling chef;

He's a hockey player with a bad rep.

Dating just might save them both.

Romantic comedy .... 363 pages .... 5/5 stars.

(Poppy's and Dallas's fake romance was funny, sweet & swoony.)

Sit, Stay, Love by Debbie Burns

Dogs needing rescue 

unite a gruff ex-marine and

sweet shelter worker.

Contemporary romance .... 371 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(The appealing romance between Kurt and Kelsey, and all those dogs, totally made me smile.)

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

Their bet on who will

find true love leads to bad dates, 

tacos, friendship...and love.

Romantic comedy .... 289 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(I loved the fun texts and banter between Jake and Hallie!)

Happy Reading!

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

 "Strange noises, bad vibes, your mom and dad recently passed--Your house is haunted and I'm not selling it until you deal with that."

 

The plot in brief:  Louise and her brother, Mark, don't get along. They haven't even spoken in years. But when their parents die, Louise flies back home to Charleston to help with the funeral. Only it's not just Mark she has to deal with, or getting their childhood home ready to sell, it's also the haunting memories from her past that she's been repressing. Oh, and all of her mother's dolls and puppets...the ones that always seem to be watching...and waiting. 

My thoughts:  I struggled with this one...partly because of my mood and mental state, and the fact that I've been running tired and stressed lately. It's been hard to enjoy any book that's not super light or fluffy. And this book is neither. But I thought the premise of this one sounded ghostly and fun...and I like the way Hendrix writes. Usually. 

Only I found it difficult to connect with the main characters in this one; Louise and Mark are both pretty unlikable at the beginning, though by the end I did like them a little more. And for a horror story, I thought the book's pacing was pretty slow. All the internal dialogue and flashbacks made it drag, especially at the start, although it does pick up about halfway through. And the ending does have some good moments of suspense. Then there's Pupkin, their mom's favorite puppet; he was truly creepy! So there are good things about this one. I just didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. But maybe you will.

Happy Reading!

The Hendrix novel I loved:

The Final Girl Support Group. 

This one is fabulous!